ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: Numerous studies highlighted a secular trend toward earlier puberty. Several factors, including nutrition and migration, may explain this trend. It is known that girls born small for gestational age (SGA) start puberty at a younger age compared to those born average for gestational age (AGA) and that overweight in childhood may be a risk factor for central precocious puberty (CPP), especially in girls. This study mainly aims to compare the evolution of girls’ body mass index (BMI) in standard deviation score (SDS) during the six years before the diagnosis of CPP among 285 girls with sporadic CPP (assumed to result mainly from environmental factors), 145 girls with familial CPP (assumed to result mainly from genetic factors) and 30 adopted girls with CPP.

Methods: This is a single-centre retrospective study including 460 girls with idiopathic CPP followed at our institution between 2002-2022. We divided the population into 3 groups: sporadic, familial and adopted-related CPP. We collected clinical and demographic data for each group. Statistical analyses, including linear regression models, were applied in order to investigate the evolution of the BMI over years and to compare different factors among groups.

Results: Out of 460 girls with CPP, we found 285 sporadic (62%), 145 familial (31.5%) and 30 adoption-related (6.5%) cases. 12% of girls were born SGA. The BMI SDS rose significantly over the 6 years preceding the diagnosis in the entire cohort, with a more marked increase between years -6 to -3 before diagnosis compared to years -3 to 0 before diagnosis [+0.19 (0.11-0.26) vs +0.11 (0.08-0.14) SDS per year]. The rate of increase in BMI during childhood was the same among the groups, as well as between migrant and non-migrant girls and between girls born SGA and AGA. Second-generation migrant girls were heavier in childhood than non-migrant or first-generation migrant girls.

Conclusion: Girls with idiopathic CPP show a rise in BMI over the 6 years preceding the diagnosis of CPP in all groups of our cohort. We do not confirm that girls with sporadic CPP have a more rapid increase in BMI in childhood than girls with familial CPP nor that they differ for the other studied characteristics. We do not confirm that girls born SGA have a more rapid increase in BMI than girls born AGA. On the other hand, we confirm that girls born SGA and adopted girls are over-represented in this cohort of girls with CPP.